NCAA debunks allegations of DG purchasing N250million SUV

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Aviation Authority (NCAA) has debunked allegations that the Acting Director General of the agency Captain Chris Najomo approved N250 million to purchase an SUV vehicle for himself.

The Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection of the Agency Mr Michael Achimugu while reacting to a media publication accusing the DGCA of financial recklessness declared that the agency has not paid any amount of money for any vehicle since Captain Najomo assumed office.

He said since the assumption, the DGCA has focused more on improving staff welfare and even declared that he would not approve money for the purchase of operational vehicles for anyone on the Directorate Cadre until they have improved the working conditions of the officers of the agency.

Achimugu during a press conference yesterday in Abuja said “NCAA has not paid any amount of money for any vehicle in the world since Captain Najomo came into the office and I challenge the writer to present evidence and I will tender my resignation immediately and not only that I will ask the DG to do such as well.”

Achimugu maintained that to purchase anything in the NCAA it has to go through a procurement process, saying if the money has not gone through the process how will the DG purchase a vehicle of N250million and besides the said amount is beyond the purview of the DG to approve ”

He disclosed that when the writer reached out to the DG before publishing the report he was told to come to the office on Monday to get reactions, but unfortunately the reporter went out published the report on Saturday.

He said the story is a sponsored attempt to degrade the person of the Captain Najomo and everyone working in the authority.

While maintaining that the allegations was premised on the statement made by the Aviation Minister that the industry is corrupt, Achimugu said the Minister was quoted out of context as what he meant was that there is systemic corruption in the industry and not that Captain Chris Najomo is corrupt.

He said “So the Ministers statement cannot be validated for the highly vexation defamatory and libelous comment. How do you publish a story without putting out the evidence you claim to have”

On the issue of sized fund, the issue of sized fund is not peculiar to NCAA alone all the aviation agencies have their money seized and despite the seizure NCAA still remit money to the federal government who in turns deduct 50percent and remit back to the agency.

On the allegations that Najomo approved N12billion for training of staffs, he said while it is important for the staff to go on trainings and retraining because as a regulator you must be on top of their game, he said the DG approved some said amount for training but it was not up to the quoted amount.

Achimugu said although the officers that were trained has not gone because they were supposed to travel out of the country, but because of the ban on foreign travels there were yet to go, saying when the ban is lifted the officers will be trained as appropriate.

He further disclosed that the authority will issue legal action against the newspaper.